1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of long chain ethers in compositons to protect plants from harmful organisms, such as insects, mites, and fungi.
2. Statement of Related Art
At the present time, useful and ornamental plants are protected against pests, disease and weeds by various methods from the purely mechanical removal of weeds and pests to controlled changes in the plant germ-plasm. However, the most common method is still the use of chemical control agents because, in this way, success can generally be obtained more simply and more quickly than with other methods.
However, the use of chemical agents often involves the disadvantage of unwanted side effects which may be attributed, for example, to high toxicity or inadequate degradability, and--in the case of pests--the development of resistance, often after only a short time. Today, the need to overcome these disadvantages is almost as much an incentive in the search for new agents as the desire to find stronger and more selective agents.
The desire to find agents having a favorable spectrum of properties was also the starting point of the developments which culminated in the present invention.